Although sound recording provides a complete record of the proceedings of a meeting or interview, it is often valuable to also create a written summary during the meeting or interview which will provide a concise report of the activity conducted which can be reviewed more quickly than listening to the complete recording. This is accomplished in many cases by the taking of written notes during the session. When this is done however it is often helpful if not completely necessary to coordinate the storage of written notes from numerous meetings or sessions with the corresponding sound recordings of those meetings or sessions. The present invention provides a means for simultaneously creating written summary notes on paper and full sound recordings of proceedings conducted during a meeting or interview so that at a later time, both the notes and the sound recording may be quickly and efficiently retrieved.
Sound recording of meetings or interviews is very commonly done using a medium such as audio magnetic tape. The recorded tapes are usually identified by labeling them and thereafter storing the tapes in boxes or racks. If written notes are taken during a recorded session, those notes are normally identified by some kind of written identification and the notes are usually stored in file cabinets. When it becomes necessary to review the content of a meeting, the notes from the meeting are retrieved from the file cabinet. If it is also necessary to review the sound recording of the meeting, the corresponding tape must be found in the tape storage area by reading the tape labels and coordinating the tape labels manually with the written identification from the notes. This use of different storage and search methods for the two media involved (paper and magnetic tape) is awkward, time-consuming and very susceptible to error.
The storage of sound recordings is greatly facilitated when recordings are made digitally on a computer disk. A single disk in the computer can potentially store many hours of recording and individual recordings can be quickly retrieved and played by using the computer's file system. By use of removable high-capacity disk media such as CD-ROM, magneto-optical disk or magnetic disk, the sound storage capacity can be virtually limitless.
The handwriting of summary notes on paper during a meeting is an accepted time proven method to create a record of the meeting. The notes can be taken by any participant and the note taking can be accomplished without distracting the participants in the meeting. Written notes can be stored by way of conventional filing and can be retrieved and read without any special equipment or skills. However, absent the use of a special stenographer who can take a verbatim transcript of the meeting, generally the written notes are a summary of the proceedings conducted at the meeting rather than a complete transcript of everything that was said in the meeting. In many instances, such as the recording of proceedings during a physician's examination, the use of a special person for transcribing is neither acceptable nor affordable and the notes of the proceeding, i.e. the physical examination, are normally recorded by the physician in summary form. In such a situation, the concurrent use of sound recording provides and inexpensive non-obtrusive method of capturing an accurate transcript of the proceedings. However, in order to fully utilize the office summary notes with the sound recording of the proceedings during the examination, an efficient and inexpensive method of coordinating the storage and retrieval of the two methods of recording the proceedings is essential. This is especially true where the sound recording medium may contain recordings of numerous meetings, or in the case of a physician, examinations. While it is normal practice, in the case of a physician, to maintain the handwritten notes of the examination in the patient's file, it is not practical to segregate the recording of one particular examination and store that in the patient's file.
Although the problem of coordinating written notes with a computer storage sound recording could be easily accomplished if the notes were also maintained on the computer, this requires that either the notes be taken on the computer or scanned into the computer. This would require the availability of special equipment or the use of a separate operation, i.e., scanning with its attendant additional costs. Keeping the notes on a computer also requires a person with computer skills and restricts the flexibility of the operation. Several prior art systems have taken this approach and describe elaborate means for the note-taker to use during the meeting. Their objective is to "simplify" note taking but they require the note-taker to learn complex protocols and to use a special tool for capturing the notes. Moreover, computerized note taking requires the availability of a computer whenever notes are retrieved and read. Writing or reading notes recorded on paper requires no computer and can be done by one without any computer skills. Although the use of the computer is becoming more and more common in business, written notes will always be used thereby raising the need for a method to handle those written notes in coordination with computerized records.
The objectives of this invention are:
1. To provide means for coordinating handwritten notes and computerized sound recordings that are created simultaneously but later stored separately; PA1 2. To prevent errors in the creation, storage and retrieval of written notes and corresponding sound recordings; PA1 3. To provide coordination of paper and computerized records at low cost and without requiring any special skills on the part of the user.